Misdirected

Hattie Murton never dreamed of TV stardom. A straight-from-a-fairytale encounter with a casting agent somehow landed her a part on what she’d thought would be a one-off pilot for Leicester Square, a bodice-ripping drama adapted from a bestselling romance novel. Buoyed by a surge in demand for romantic dramas, the show instead propelled its core cast to household-name status within a month.

Hattie tries to look on the positive side of all situations, but four seasons of brutal press, overly invested fans, and a cutthroat industry that’s never quite felt like the right fit would give even Pollyanna an edge of cynicism. And high on the ‘con’ list when it comes to her current and unintended career is having to share a set and some horrendously early starts with Anthony Rafe. Leicester Square villain. A-lister. Absolute prat.

In the new season’s scripts, it appears that her previously sane, rational character is about to lose her mind and begin an unexpected and unsettlingly graphic affair with the series villain. Forced into close—very close and very…intimate—proximity with the man everyone loves to hate, Hattie’s horror is matched only by Anthony’s drawling disdain. But when very real chemistry sparks during their scripted love scenes, Hattie begins to think the industry’s legendarily heartless Bad Guy might just have a pulse after all. And Anthony, for his part, is caught off-guard by the way his heart races when he’s around his aggravating onscreen lover.

As reality starts to imitate art a little too close for comfort, the world’s most unlikely couple might just have more in common than they thought…